


Worst Fears

by midas_touch_of_angst



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Baby Sonic - Freeform, Baby Tails, Drowning, Fear, Gen, Pre-Canon, falling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-05-21
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:01:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24310960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midas_touch_of_angst/pseuds/midas_touch_of_angst
Summary: Sonic is terrified of the water. Tails is terrified of storms.How did that happen, exactly?
Comments: 8
Kudos: 99





	Worst Fears

**Author's Note:**

> feat. my speculation for why Tails is looking for Sonic in 2020.

**FEAR - SONIC**

Sonic was five and he was drowning. 

Longclaw had always told him to look before he ran, but she wasn’t here now. Nobody was. He was alone, he was alone, he was  _ all alone and nobody was there and nobody was going to help him and he had to get out himself.  _

He was still on the first of the planets she’d laid out for him on her map. He didn’t want to rush things, maybe this planet could be nice, maybe he could find a friend, maybe Longclaw would be okay and come looking for him here and take him back and they’d never have to split up again. 

But he’d gotten spotted by the local population, and someone was chasing him- he didn’t get a good look who, he just saw someone yelling and rushing towards him and then he was running. Running like he always did, like he was always going to do. He’d slowed at one point, glancing back to see if he was being followed. But he glanced back at the wrong time, because he tripped over a sharp rock, and fell into a body of water. He didn’t get a good look at how big it was, if he was in a river or a lake or a stupid ocean. He just knew that he fell, and that he couldn’t get up. 

The current was pushing him down, and slammed him against something- a wall, a rock? He felt the sharp pain in his back, but even when he managed to blink open his eyes he saw nothing but the dark, churning water, pushing against his eyes and  _ stinging,  _ it really stung! He tried to push himself forward, but he was never good in water, he’d never had a reason to go swimming when he could run and spin on land just fine. He just felt himself slammed against rocks, pelted with more stinging water, and falling deeper. He wanted to scream but if he opened his mouth, he’d lose whatever breath he had left. 

He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t  _ breathe.  _

He just needed to move up, to get out of the water, to get to  _ air.  _ But he couldn’t move, he was just being tossed around, pushed by the whims of the merciless, rushing current. He tried to move his arms only for them to start to ache with the pressure. His legs, his power, were  _ useless.  _ He was  _ useless.  _

He wanted Longclaw. He wanted Longclaw to come get him, to swoop in and save him like she would when he ran off too steep a cliff, when he was falling from a tree trying to get a cool-looking leaf, when they were  _ attacked by angry echidnas who wanted his power and were going to hurt him and Longclaw and they hurt Longclaw and it was his fault because he didn’t stay hidden like she told him to and now she was gone and couldn’t save him now and he was alone in the water and he was going to drown.  _

He was slammed into something again, and his mouth flew open in an involuntary cry. If he had any breath left, it was gone, as water poured into his mouth, warm and stingy and choking him. Another slam as he felt more water spring around his eyes- tears or more of the horrible stream? What was even happening? He didn’t know what he was doing anymore. He was spinning but not in a good way, in a horrible, out-of-control way, and he had water in his throat and mouth and lungs and he was going to die. 

He was going to drown. He was going to die and Longclaw couldn’t help him. She wouldn’t even  _ know.  _ Nobody would know he was dying and dead and gone because he had to stay hidden forever and if he didn’t they would hurt him and that didn’t even matter because he was going to die here and alone and forgotten and  _ trying to breathe. He couldn’t breathe.  _

And then he felt his feet land against a rock. Thinking instinctively, he pushed with his legs, pushing himself upwards. And within an instant, cold air slammed against his face. His open mouth finally found air, and he coughed and spat the water and tried to breathe. 

He went under twice more, but he was close enough to the surface that now the current inevitably pushed his head to the surface. He wanted to cry, but all he could do was gasp for air until the water pushed him to the left, and he threw out his arms and grasped onto a rocky surface. He gripped on, struggling to keep a hold while the river kept trying to take him away, take him down the stream and to whatever doom it had planned for him. He managed to edge himself up, slide onto the moist dirt and stones. When his legs were finally free, he curled up, ignoring the water that would lap and splash at his knees, just hugging himself and gasping and burying his head in his own fur. 

He was… alive? 

It took him several minutes to calm down, and when he did, he opened his eyes to see the edge of the river. Panic filled his chest again, and he screamed and backed up, kicking his legs fast enough that showers of stones splashed into the water, hitting against him. Every drop that hit him felt like another blast from the river, another push against his face and lungs and chest and ears and eyes and… 

When he finally scrambled far enough away that the water couldn’t hit him anymore, he started to cry, screaming and sobbing and grabbing onto the earth and trying to keep himself steady. And when he failed, he just fell to the ground and cried again. 

When the morning came, he’d get up, legs aching and arms heavy, and make his way to his hideout, where he’d dig out his rings and find another planet. He couldn’t stay on this one. It’d been too long. Longclaw wasn’t coming for him. Nobody was. Nobody knew him or loved him anymore, And nobody was going to get him. He just needed to get away, to get somewhere away from that river, from the drowning. 

But until then, he just huddled on the ground and cried himself to sleep. 

**FEAR - TAILS**

Tails was five and he was falling. 

He just wanted to find him. He thought he saw weird lightning in the distance, different than the storm’s. He thought it was blue, but now that he thought of it, that might’ve been a trick of the light, of his eyes getting too tired to process everything in a scientific manner. And he recalled his theory that Sonic moving at a certain speed could increase the electricity in his power, cause an outburst of power that could seem like artificial lightning. So when he saw lightning he thought was blue, he thought he should go look. Maybe Sonic came back. Maybe he could find Sonic! 

He didn’t really think, which he normally did a lot of, but he was overcome with the idea of being the one to find Sonic, and the idea of actually  _ meeting  _ Sonic, so he took off into the sky. He’d finally gotten the hang of flying, though he’d never done so in a storm before. It probably wasn’t that hard, he’d floated a bit during the last drizzle and it had been easy to recalibrate winds during that rain. So harder rain shouldn’t be a problem, right? Just a little more tilt than before, a little more push and faster spinning tails. 

He did not account for the thunder. 

He’d heard thunder before of course, but from the safety of his home, with thick stone making it only a distant rumble. And, well, he was  _ five,  _ he hadn’t really processed storms very well before now. And he was a bit stressed when the first peal sounded. Because, well, it turned out that storm-rain was different than drizzle-rain, in that it was a lot harder to see, and his fur was all wet and he hated wet fur but it was okay because he was going to see Sonic, it would be fine, they could dry off together. Maybe Sonic could speed up around them and use wind pressure to dry them all off. And, hey, yeah he was getting blown off course a little, but he still had his eyes on his goal, he knew where he was going. 

Then there was  _ the thunder.  _

And it turned out thunder was so much  _ louder  _ outside. 

He kept shivering, occasionally throwing off his path, whenever he heard a  _ boom, _ which seemed to be getting louder the farther he traveled from the cave. And whenever lightning flashed, he was momentarily blinded, his eyes shifting to wherever the light came from, and then he’d start trembling again, terrified while knowing that the thunder was going to come soon- thunder always came after lightning, and he recalled that the amount of seconds between the thunder and lightning divided by five equalled how many miles away it was. But he didn’t have time to count now, even as the space between the crashes got narrower and narrower, he just had to focus on pushing through the wind, he couldn’t turn back now, not when- 

There was a flash, all too close to him, so close he thought he might be able to feel the heat. And as he felt himself recoil back, the thought of being struck startling him, the thunder clapped and it felt like it was pushing against his ears, surrounding him, trapping him. His ears felt like they’d just exploded, and for a few moments he couldn’t hear anything, and so he didn’t realize he screamed until much later, hen he was already halfway down the sky. 

When he next opened his eyes, it was because he felt the wind and rain rushing against him, and pushing, and forcing him down. Down, down, down… so far  _ down, _ and when he realized, he started spinning his tails, trying to fly higher, but they felt like lead, they were turning too slow while he was falling too fast, and he was still shaking and his ears felt numb and heavy and he didn’t want to feel the rain or wind or heat anymore he just wanted everything to  _ stop…  _

He felt the claws snag around him very lightly, much more lightly than he was probably grabbed. He was too busy trying to shut out the world to pay attention to how roughly he was grabbed, how fast he was ripped from his path downwards and dragged along behind someone with more control over storm flight. But by the time he realized he hadn’t hit the ground and broken every bone in his body, by the time he noticed he wasn’t dead or dying at the moment, and he realized what was happening, he just started to bawl. 

He was still crying when they landed by the cave, and Longclaw rolled him into the dry stone and asked, “What were you  _ thinking?”  _

Tails wanted to respond immediately, but instead he found himself curled up, tails wrapped around his legs as he sunk into the stone, trying to blot out the sound of the storm outside. He flipped his ears down, shuddering and keeping his eyes shut tight. They felt hot, and he wasn’t sure why- tears being held back? A leftover effect of the lightning getting so close? Maybe he was getting sick. Maybe he should just curl up and sleep for a week. Maybe he should just crawl into the back of the cave and never come out again. 

The first thing he noticed outside the realm of his terrified mind was Longclaw’s wings wrapped around him, squeezing him enough that he felt safe, enough that she could shelter him from the storm. Every time a peal of thunder sounded, he sunk more into her feathers, desperately trying to keep the sounds away. 

When he finally calmed down enough to speak, he muttered, “I’m sorry-” 

“Miles.” her voice was much lower, more careful than before. 

“You shouldn’t- shouldn’t have come after me- you can’t fly good anymore-” 

“Miles, shh. I wasn’t going to leave you in that storm.” She pulled away slightly, and Tails flinched as wind pushed against him. He looked up with teary eyes, trying to stop his trembles. “But what were you doing out there? You could’ve gotten  _ hurt.  _ Or someone could have seen you, and then we’d have to move on to another-” 

“I- I was looking for Sonic.” Tails admitted, and then he couldn’t stop the tears at all. “So you wouldn’t be sad anymore.” 

He didn’t look up at Longclaw to see her reaction, because he ducked down to cry into his tails again. But she swept him up into another embrace, and he stayed inside the cave for the rest of the storm. 


End file.
